Breakwater floating island promises off-shore luxury for Chicago

A Chicago businessman is floating the idea of an artificial island anchored to the bed of Lake Michigan around a mile off-shore. Launching the crowdfunding campaign today, entrepreneur Beau D'Arcy has high hopes for Breakwater Chicago, an urban getaway that promises to pamper city folk with the five-star service of a luxury resort.

The floating entertainment complex would measure 300 ft (91 m) long, 100 ft (30 m) wide, operate as a vessel and be towed 1.1 miles (1.77 km) off-shore in the summertime. During winter, it would be anchored to the shore and enclosed in a clear dome, its pool helping to create a tropical indoor environment a little closer to home.

Though there are still considerable regulatory hoops for D'Arcy to jump through before Breakwater becomes a reality, his team has already spent around two years developing the layout of the island. In addition to swimming, visitors could relax at the day spa, eat and drink at the bars and restaurants, soak up some rays on the sun deck and bust some moves at the nightclub.

The overall cost for Breakwater is expected to top US$20 million. The target for the initial Kickstarter campaign is a comparatively humble $30,000. If successful, these funds will be used to develop an animated 3D video tour of the vessel, helping the team to drum up community interest. From there, it hopes to build a 1:100 scale model of Breakwater to gain support from architects and environmental communities, before ultimately opening for business in time for (northern hemisphere) summer 2015.